


A Blessing in Disguise

by puppyfacedbrokenboys



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Alternate Canon, Canon Compliant, F/M, Pre-GMNY, lucas pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 10:37:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5413649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puppyfacedbrokenboys/pseuds/puppyfacedbrokenboys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maya wasn't the only one who stepped back.</p><p>// Or the one where we see Lucas' side of the story<br/>(Partially canon up until GM Texas Part 2)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Blessing in Disguise

**Author's Note:**

> This is a look at the theory that Lucas liked Maya all along. It's an exploration of how he might feel about everything, since canon is not doing a very good job at telling us how he feels -- aside from confusion.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! Happy Holidays to the Lucaya and GMW fandoms <3

Some things are blessings in disguise, his Granny Jo used to always say. Lucas never put much stock in what the aging woman said until he moved to New York.

He’s jet-lagged the morning he rides the subway for the first time to his new school. He’s pale and tired, and hopes all the stories about muggings on the subway were false.

He keeps his head down. This is the start of the brand new Lucas — one that didn't have to hide behind a rough exterior in order to overcome the constant embarrassment he’d felt since the age of six.

He'd be good this time — the real Lucas.

And the real Lucas studied.

Lucas cracks open the new textbook his dad had picked up when he had flew ahead of Lucas and his mother to make sure Lucas’ registration had been completed. He flips through the pages, getting a feel for what he was getting himself into. Would he be covering things he’d already been taught? Would he be behind of his classmates? Just by looking, it seems New York was going to be very different than Texas.

“—when you look at him.”

Apparently, the girls would be different too, Lucas thinks as he looks up from his textbook to see two girls — a blonde and a brunette — about his age smiling at him. Lucas smiles back, his eyes lingering on the blonde.

Lucas returns his attention to his book as the two continue talking, seemingly forgetting about him. A voice above him makes him look up soon after; he’s pleased to see the blonde standing over him. He turns up the wattage of his smile.

“Hi, I’m Maya—”

 _Maya_. She’s one of the prettiest girls he’s ever seen.

His smile quickly turns into confusion as she continues: “—you’re really cute. We should go out sometime.” He has a quick thought of _yes_ , which quickly gets derailed with _what?_ “You make me happy. You don’t pay enough attention to me. This isn’t working out. It’s you, not me. We can still be friends; not really.”

She leaves him watching after her, hoping this is a one-time occurrence of weird and not a _New York_ thing. He’s too tired to think more of it and just brushes it off.

Then it starts to click when he sees Maya pull the brunette’s hand off the pole, and a lurch of the car sends her backwards towards him. It’s all he can do to reach out and catch her.

The girl is nervous, but her smile makes up for it. Lucas matches her smile.

“Hi,” she says, the awkward nervousness is much more pronounced in her voice. It’s really cute. “You used to go out with my friend Maya.”

Lucas looks at her then, nodding. He hopes he might get a fair shot at it some day. Nevertheless, he’s a gentlemen, with a nice, adorable girl in his lap. He had manners. “I’m Lucas,” he introduces himself with another smile.

“I love it,” she says and Lucas can only smile more. There’s just something about her; something so infectious that makes him feel good to be around her, even though they have just met.

The morning continues to be weird as some lady asks the brunette if she can have her seat, and the brunette goes back to stand with Maya. Maya sends her friend flying again; this time she lands on the lady, whom then deposits her on Lucas’s lap. “It’s for _you_ ,” she says.

New York is weird, very weird.

But it looks to be a time he’d never forget.

* * *

“I’m Lucas Friar from Austin, Texas,” Lucas introduces himself to his teacher the first day of school.

He uses his charismatic smile and sits behind the girl from the subway, and diagonally behind Maya. He’s relieved he knows at least two people in his class. His teacher seems nice, and the weirdness continues when Maya decides to stage a homework strike for freedom ( _rebellious and beautiful, what a combo_ ), and he watches as Riley ( _thank you, teacher, for the name_ ) converses with her father ( _that makes so much more sense_ ) and he tells her it isn’t her.

He’s not quite sure what her father meant, but Lucas admires her loyalty to her friend and thinks that maybe he should stick close to her. She’d be able to show him how to be the real Lucas.

* * *

The weirdness gets weirder when Lucas sits down next to Riley and Maya at lunch and their teacher comes up and drags him away.

Lucas takes it in stride, even though he’s completely confused. But Riley is really nice and he likes her for it.

The next day, though, Maya is sitting in front of him instead of Riley, and he figures Mr. Matthews had another father over-reaction and had them switch. It’s okay with him. Maybe he’d now have a reason to get to know Maya better.

He likes Riley, don’t get him wrong. But he likes Maya, too.

As of now he’ll leave it be, since Maya doesn’t seem all that into him.

Plus, Riley likes him, and he doesn’t want to hurt her. He likes her too, so why not give it a shot?

* * *

Over a year later and things haven’t really sparked with Riley.

They’ve kissed once, and been on a couple awkward dates. He still likes her, maybe loves her, but not in the way his mom describes love — not in the way his older cousins do, either.

His and Maya’s relationship hasn’t really changed either. She still teases him relentlessly, but he doesn't feel any real fire behind it. Honestly? He likes it. He likes the way her lips pull back in a smile, the way her eyes sparkle when she comes up with another ( _terrible_ ) nickname. He likes how it irks her when he plays along. ( _It’s cute._ )

(“You’re not playing this right.”

“Oh, well that’s certainly not my intention. I’ll try harder next time”

“I will break you.”

“If that’s what makes you happy, then I certainly can’t wait for it.” He tips his fake hat. “Ma’am.”)

He likes seeing her happy. He likes that, in their own way, they understand each other. It’s unspoken — revealed in class discussions that leave them both silent for a moment before moving on.

(“You’re a great artist, Maya.”

“I want Maya happy.”)

It’s pure fun, until it isn’t.

It’s nothing earth-shattering. It’s gradual, silent; no less powerful once it catches up with him.

He remembers something else his Granny Jo had told him, or maybe it was his Aunt Julie…

_“If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders.”_

Boy, does it wander. He constantly catches himself zoning out and staring at the back of Maya’s head. He likes watching over her shoulder as she draws during class. Usually they’re little doodles in the margins of her papers and notebooks. Sometimes it’s a full picture of the night sky, or her mom or Riley, or other abstract things that Lucas never lets himself look long enough to decipher.

He thinks about how to one-up her next; how he can keep her on her toes. He thinks about how much she keeps hidden, but how open she is despite of it. He thinks about how loyal she is to Riley and Farkle, and to Lucas himself in the spaces of time he can see through her cracks.

Maya leaves him wanting to know more, where Riley is an open book. Anything he needs to know about Riley he can see with one look.

It’s not a bad thing. He loves Riley — how big her heart is, how kind she is, how unapologetically weird she is. But he keeps thinking back to how he doesn’t want her to see his dark side. He doesn’t want her to see the worst of him. She saw the way he spoke to that bully — the way he lost control of himself in order to protect his friends. But he also feels like he cracked the perfect vision she had of him… something he never wanted her to see.

For a while, he feels guilty that he doesn’t feel what Riley feels for him. He’s thought about their future together. It would be nice, no doubt — she’s a nice girl and he likes being with her. But there’s just something that doesn’t fit. Something that makes him unable to see anything more than a friendship with her.

Then Riley starts making decisions for him. She declares they’re brother and sister, and puts Lucas back into the state of confusion he always finds himself in when it comes to his feelings with the two girls.

It all comes full circle when Maya, in a rare moment of vulnerability, tells him, “You could’ve gotten hurt on that stupid bull.”

There’s just something about it that makes Lucas’ breath catch.

“What do you think you getting hurt would have done to the people who…?”

“Care about you?” Zay interjects when Maya falters. Lucas half-wishes his friend didn’t have such a big mouth.

It causes Maya to turn defensive. She denies she was talking about herself but Lucas keeps stealing glances at her and she refuses to make eye contact.

Lucas is, once again, even more confused than before.

* * *

“Everywhere I go I see your smile,” the girls sing on stage.

_Uh oh._

Lucas suddenly feels very awkward standing between Riley and Maya.

* * *

 

“What’s going on? I’m her brother now?”

“Apparently.”

“You like me?”

“No.”

And there, alone together and looking at the fire, Lucas takes a chance and just looks at her. He thinks about how much he’s liked her, but stepped back because he always liked Riley and didn’t want to hurt her. He thinks about how much he still likes Riley. But looking at Maya now…

Maybe it truly wasn’t the ‘like’ he should feel for Riley.

He’s never felt like this before with Riley: never couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

Maya stepped back too, Riley said. But she keeps denying it. Lucas wants to get to the bottom of it.

“So you don’t make fun of me because you like me?”

Maya is quiet, then says, “I’m just gonna watch this fire.”

Lucas presses, “Maya, why do you make fun of me?”

That must hit a nerve, because Maya’s up in his face in an instant. “Because you’re easy to make fun of.”

“Okay then stop,” he tells her.

“Because you’re a Huckleberry,” she continues like he didn’t try to interrupt her. “Because you’re a Ranger Rick.”

“Would you stop?”

“Look, if I had feelings for you, wouldn’t you think I’d just come right out and say it? So what I do say is _ha-hurrr_.”

He doesn’t realize he’s reached out to touch her face until they’re eye to eye, sharing each other’s breaths and her voice has died off abruptly. He almost leans in for a kiss, but something holds him back.

“Why’d you do that?”

Because he wanted to kiss her, but something held him back. Because he’s liked her since he’s first laid eyes on her, but he can’t give into his his feelings yet. Not while his relationship with Riley is the way it is.

“I don’t know,” he exclaims. It’s a lie. “I just wanted you to stop.”

_To stop denying that you have feelings for me. To stop guarding yourself and let me in for once._

_To be honest with me._

“You couldn’t think of another way to stop me?” she asks incredulously.

“Not at the time, no,” Lucas admits. “I’m sorry?” His voices shakes. He’s sorry for overstepping boundaries.

Lucas holds his breath when she locks eyes with him again. She’s so small and vulnerable.

“You don’t have to be sorry, Huckleberry.” The way her voice breaks on the nickname makes his pulse jump. It sounds different, less teasing and more… gentle, soft. “Of course, I like you. You’re a good guy. If you got hurt, I don’t know what I would have done.”

Lucas can’t bring himself to say anything as she sits down. He sits down next to her, itching to just wrap his arm around her and pull her close. He starts thinking about the moment she jumped on his back to keep him from fighting Billy. She’d seen the cracks in his perfect facade; had even managed to calm him down by just using her words.

She’d seen the worst of him and still liked him.

“I don’t want to have any more secrets from her.”

Lucas can see how conflicted she is. He feels it too, on a smaller scale. Neither of them want to hurt Riley. This most certainly would; no matter how much she stressed nothing would break their friendship.

He wants to tell her he likes her too, but he can’t.

He wants to tell her that everything he feels for Riley, he feels so much more with her, but he can’t.

So he welcomes the impending confusion — but it never comes.

He likes Maya and wants to see it through.

He just needs to deal with Riley first.

Hopefully this would turn out to be a blessing in disguise than the impending disaster it feels like.

 

 


End file.
